Feeder attachment for feed-cutters.



PATENTEDOGT. 9, 1906.

' W. J. MITCHELL,

FEEDER ATTACHMENT EOE FEED GUTTERS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV.23, 1905.

W'ILLlAli'I J. ivll'ltlllELL, OF SAN FRANCISCO, (JALIFUIthlIA.

FEEDER ATTACHMENT FDR FEED GUTTERSn Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 9, 1906.

Ap iicaiinu flied November 23,1905. time No. 288,702.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WiLLiAM J. h'lI'lCIIELL, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented new and. useful Improvements in Feeder Attachments for Feed-Cutters, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to ,a feeder attachment for feed-cutters, such as are used for cutting ensilage, fodder, hay, straw, and other material. Its object is to provide a.

simple practical device for feeding hay or oti'er material to the feed cutters or choppers, which device will operate to compress the material and force it between the feedrol'lers, which will lessen the danger now present in attending feedcutting machines,

'and which device at t e same time will greatly increase the capacity of a machine and reduce labor and expense.

The invention consists of the parts and the construction and the combination of parts, as

lereinafter inore fully described and claimed,

having reference to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 isa side elevation of t e invention, partly broken away. Fig. 2 is. a plan view of same. V A represents the feed-trough of a feed-cutter such as is ordinarily used or cutting hay or the like. is tough is preferably arranged with flared sides in the usual manner, as shown, and it may have either a stationary or a movable ,bottoin. In the present instance I have represented the trough having a traveling feed apron or table 2, operating to carry material to be cut to the feedrollers 3, whence it is delivered to the cuting driven in unison through the intercomneeting gears 7.

The bars 5 connect at their rear ends to the crank-shaft 6, while their front elevated ends are supported. loose on a cross-bar of frame 4- by means of the loops or straps 8.

These straps are of suitable size and shape to permit of the proper reciprocatory movement of the bars and it?) provide for a limited oscillatory movement of the bars about their pivots on the crank-shaft independent of the frame '4; I

The frame is supported at any suitable angle relative to the table by anyappropriate means, such as the chain 9, attached to a suitable fixed support 10.

The feed-bars 5 are su iplied with teeth 11, which are set at a suitable angle to draw or gather the hay preparatory to feeding it forward, and these teeth maybe either straight, curved, rigid, or flexible.

There may be any number of feed-bars, and the bars may be of any suitable length,

' depending on the size of the machine aud t/he character of the material to be out. Likewise the number and size of the teeth may vary'. Preferably where a plurality of bars are used they re so arranged that certain bars will actalteruately with the other bars,

so that while one bar is feeding forward the other bars are sliding back over the material in order to take afresh held. In the present instance I have only shown three bars, with the two outside bars operating alternately with the intermediate bar, the main work of feeding to the rollers being done by the middle bar, while the outside bars serve to draw in the material at the edges of the trough. The central feed-bar is preferably provided with an underneath pusher proiectionlZ, which presses down onto the material at each downward and forward stroke of the bar to cornpress the material and push it up into the range of the feedrollers. This pusher may consist of a flat piece of board three or four inches, more or less, in width. .In large niachines there may be a plurality of these pushers:

In operation the frame 4 is lifted. and supported at a suitable angle relative to the table. Usually it'is arranged at an angle of about thirty-live degreea'rnore or less. The machine and bars 5 being set in motiomthe loose material is piled into thetrough, and as it acted on by the table and by the constant reciprocating action of the bars" 5 it is drawn downward and. compressed into a cmnparatively thin compact mass and pushed and driven forward into engagement with thefeerbrollers. It is this compacting and compressing of the material that renders the apparatus of special value and gives me the desired action and the desired increase in capacity. The shaft 6 is rotated, so that the feed-bars will compress the material on each downward and forward stroke.

stroke of the bars the three or four inch play, more or less, allowed by the straps 8 permits the limited oscillation of the bars, so thatfthe teeth draw out of and ride over the material, and thereby prevent the teeth so becoming locked in the material as to cause the latter to slide back and forth with the bars. If all the bars moved in the same direction at the same time and if the bars were not permitted this oscillatory movement, there would be a tendency for the material to cling to the bars and not be fed inthe manner desired. The

resulting action of the feed-bars and crankshaft is to contract the bulk of the material and pack the same ready for the pusher 12 to force it between the rollers, which latter are enabled thereby to get a better hold on the material to feed it forward to the knives.

Having thus described my invention, what On the back 5 I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patcm, is-

1. The combination with feed-rollers, of a 1 feed-table, a conveyer comprising toothed bars having a combined reciprocal and oscillatory movement said bars bein pivotally mounted at the end nearest the eed-rollers and arranged at an incline relative to the ifeed-table and proximate to the feed-rollers and having means cooperating with the table to compact the loose material and force it between the feederollers, and means for operating said conveyer.

2. The combination with feed-rollers, of a carried by the bars to advance the material to the feedrollers.

. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing wit- IIBSSGS,

WiLLIAM J. MITCHELL. Witnesses:

M; D. BROWN, FRANK C. Sonwanz.

uide-straps 

